A/N I appreciate everyone who has taken the time to review, even those for whom the alternating first person is grating. For those of you enjoying it, here's the update.
Chapter Three
Gibbs
I was up, showered and dressed, putting my shoes on at 05:30 when his alarm went off. I heard it from the sofa and went quickly back to the bedroom. I saw when the beginnings of a pout on Tim's face transformed into a smile the moment he saw me. So, so beautiful. I leaned down for a kiss, and we both sighed when our lips parted, cocked heads and wry smiles acknowledging that we didn't have time for another go.
"I gotta get to my hotel and change. We'll be starting at your office," I told him, speaking softly, clinging the intimacy of our time together. He nodded and sighed again.
"Thank you for tonight, Jethro. I'll hold this memory forever," he said. His voice was low, too, and I could hear in it the emotion he was suppressing. I pulled him up to sitting and settled on the mattress, holding him.
"You're so special, angel." I kissed his hair and ran my hands over the smooth skin of his back. "You deserve so much more than an old warhorse like me. Shotgun it. I mean that. Someone is gonna snap you up and never let you go."
He took a shaking breath and finally leaned away to look at me. Oh god, he was making puppy eyes at me, and I wanted to give in…
"If things ever change, I'd be willing to try with you. And if they don't change and you want another night like this..."
I cupped his face and kissed his forehead. "Find someone else. Find someone better," I said, speaking against his warm skin. I stood and roughly cleared my throat, trying for nonchalant and ending up sounding harsh. But I didn't dare go any further in comforting him, or all would be lost. "See you in a couple hours."
Stuffing down every emotion roiling through my gut, I left without looking back.
McGee
He left and I tried hard not to cry my way through my morning routine. I finally got ahold of myself in the car as I drove the familiar route to work. I nodded to acquaintances as I trudged up to my file-storage-closet-turned-office. At least I had a window. The usual mess of file folders littered my desk, everyone seeming to think that since the file boxes were still stored in my office that I should work like a clerk and put them away when they were done with them. I was trying to sort my stuff from the random crap when the MCRT team arrived.
"We need a video feed with Ducky, McGee," Gibbs ordered without preamble. I jumped, trying to look at him, but not too much. He seemed to avoid my eyes, so I tried to follow his lead. I looked instead to DiNozzo for clarification, knowing I'd better not speak to Gibbs yet or my voice might betray me by cracking. He looked cool and calm, and I struggled to hold back my desire to yell at him. I wanted him to acknowledge me, to admit what had happened between us, but I knew how unreasonable I was being with that thought.
"The Medical Examiner you met yesterday, McGee. Doctor Mallard," Tony said, speaking to me like I was a slow ten year old. I ignored the tone, nodding my thanks and, logging into my computer, got to work. I quickly gave up my seat to Gibbs once I'd established the link for him.
Impressively, the Scottish doctor and their forensic specialist already had a clue for Gibbs. From the angle I was looking at the screen, I couldn't see them clearly, but the woman had a sexy, husky voice and while she spoke flirtatiously, no one seemed to take it that way. They'd found a tattoo indicating that the victim was probably a submariner. The doctor began rambling about the history of tattoos, and I was half listening, knowing he was Jethro's friend and being curious about him.
"Any subs in port?" Gibbs cocked his head my way, and I jumped, realizing he was addressing me.
"Uh, I'm copied on the daily movement report," I said, reaching across in front of Gibbs to try desperately to find the printout. DiNozzo made a snide remark about my filing system, and I knew better than to explain that the extra crap on my desk wasn't mine. He'd take it as an excuse, and it was bad enough that Gibbs was seeing my office this way.
I found it and informed him there were three subs in port, one in dry dock, and another one having deployed very recently.
"Got any of the ship's alpha rosters?"
I knew Janice in records would have it. "I'm on it," I said, thrilled to be useful, and hurried out to get Gibbs what he needed.
Gibbs
I was relieved when McGee left to get the information. He was insanely distracting. When he'd given me his seat, he'd smelled so damned good I'd started to get hard, and when he leaned over me, his throat inches from my face, I could see the edge of one of the bite marks I'd left on his pale skin and I had wanted nothing more than to add to them when I vividly recalled the taste of him. I glanced at the computer screen in front of me and realized Ducky was still yammering. I rolled my eyes and tried to focus on the case.
We headed out to the docks and I was only a little jealous that Tim called Tony instead of me when he returned to his office and found us gone. DiNozzo of course had to talk to him like he was an idiot even though all he needed to know was where we were. I refrained from reprimanding him; I had to stay cold about McGee. I knew it was for the best when my gut clenched as the sound of him calling my name carried on the air when he rushed to meet us with the requisite paperwork. Last night had been such a bad idea, but I couldn't bring myself to truly regret it.
"Everyone on the sub crews is accounted for," Tim said, nearly breathless. I frowned, thinking, and it deepened to a scowl as Tony reached out to touch Tim's tie. Yeah, it was goofy that he wore an outdated sport coat and wide tie, but I knew his collar was hiding all the marks I'd left on him as well. And damnit I hated seeing DiNozzo touching him, especially with his derisive expression. The thought of grabbing his hand and putting him in a wrist lock to keep him away from Tim flashed through my mind.
"Including the Philadelphia?" I asked, still automatically following the case investigation.
"Yes, sir," Tim answered, and that formal response made me think about having him call me sir while I was buried balls deep in his ass... Moaning, whining, begging… 'Please, sir…' I nearly growled at my mental derailment, trying to get back on track.
"So a submariner is dead but none are missing, and the dead man's identity was removed," I clarified aloud, looking around at everything but Tim in order to have a chance at focusing. "Someone took his place on one of those subs."
Kate seemed incredulous. "An imposter?"
I gave a short nod. "Let's pay a visit to the submarine squadron commander," I said, and turned to head for said man's office.
McGee
He still wouldn't look at me, even when I'd done my job and gotten him the rosters. I just wanted him to look at me! I couldn't stand that he was walking away. He was close enough to touch, but a world away. I had to get his attention again. Why wouldn't he look at me?
"You'll want to avoid Captain Veech," I called to him. He turned back toward me and I felt my eyes widen at his fierce expression. He was meeting my eyes now, and I immediately regretted calling his attention. I locked my knees, trying to behave normally.
"What?!" He snapped.
"Um, I, uh, met him once, before..." Gibbs stalked up to me and -oh shit- now his eyes were like blue lasers, and I so desperately wanted to close the gap between us and kiss him! I shook myself and stuttered to explain. "He can be very...difficult." His got even closer, right in my face, an inch away, and I smelled the coffee on his breath. His eyes were burning into me, and I felt my pants starting to constrict: I couldn't pop a boner in front of the other agents! I lowered my eyes, but my gaze caught on his lips, and he fucking sucked my dick last night with those lips wrapped around me and... I had to think about something else, anything else!
Pi! 3.1415926535897932384626433832…
Oh god!
Gibbs
The light on his face, his cheeks flushed; he was aroused but trying so hard to be pro, to be helpful- oh, how I wanted him…
"And you don't think that I can be difficult?" I asked, my voice low. His color heightened further and I watched him swallow hard. He was so turned on - hell, so was I, but it just set me on fire with him frowning in concentration.
"I'm sure you can, sir."
And then he closed his eyes, and I wondered what thoughts this kid was using to get rid of the hard-on that was tenting his pants.
I couldn't help but smile, thinking again of making him call me sir. Playing the game, making him kneel, having him suck my cock with no hands, fucking his mouth…
I snapped back to reality and turned on my heel to go.
McGee
Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap... I closed my eyes, trying so hard to rein in my lust, my need to grab him and kiss him and rip his clothes off and... No!
I tried to think about the news story on land mines that I'd seen last week, the one with the horrific pictures of aftermath. I tried to recall the filthiest bathroom I'd ever seen, to imagine anything that would calm my body. Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Fluorine, Neon…
I opened my eyes and he was gone and I had to run to catch up. But Gibbs ignored me and DiNozzo ordered me back to my office, basically insinuating that it was time for the grown-ups to work and as the kid I should just run along and play. I watched them head toward Veech's office and slowly walked back to my car. I slid behind the wheel and slumped, then let my head thump forward against the wheel. I was hopeless. I could barely even think straight. Ha! Straight; not even close. Maybe I was gay, maybe this was just showing me what I really wanted was men. But as handsome as agent DiNozzo was, he did nothing for me in that way. I ran through all the men I knew, and while some were attractive, the women in the office still held more allure than most of them. No, I was bi. I was bi and I wanted Jethro Gibbs.
Gibbs
My mood darkened after that. I hadn't been able to think of an excuse to keep McGee with us, so I let Tony send him away. Not turning to watch him leave was damn tough. I took my frustration out on the brusque Captain, forcing him to arrange for us to deploy onto the Philadelphia, and then Kate and I went to grab our kits and it was more than a little satisfying to send Tony back to the Norfolk office.
Transferring out to the sub to try to find the imposter saboteur gave me too much time to remember. I'd thought of the kid since that weekend, sure. Sometimes, between hook-ups, or late at night; after a particularly bad experience with a woman; that kind of thing. I'd recall his smile, the way he was so eager to please... Then maybe I'd think of how he tasted... How amazingly good he was at blow jobs, looking up at me; an angel on his knees, eyes raised to mine like a supplicant. Yeah, I'd thought about him.
But seeing him again, having new memories of him crying out, this time calling me Jethro... Damn. And he was older, with a bit more experience under his belt, so to speak. That way his smile was more knowing, how he'd manipulated me; I was having a hell of a time concentrating. That soft, white skin, curving and pliable with harder muscle beneath… Those gorgeous blue-green eyes, and those pouty, baby-faced lips…
He was just so fucking young! The four years previous, with him barely twenty-one, I'd been able to tell myself it was just a fling. As I sat there next to Kate, it hit me that she was older than Tim. Years older, and she was acting pretty young right at the moment, so excited about going onto a nuclear sub, but still... As rawly emotional as he was, Tim had a wisdom to him that made it not matter that he was young enough to be my son, and then some.
I shook myself. It did matter. He was too young. He needed to experience life and real love and he wouldn't do that if he was hung up on me.
Not pursuing this was the right decision. It really was. Definitely.
Uh-huh.
McGee
I got back to my office and moved all the extra files from my desk into the basket for the intern to re-file. Not having a particular assignment at the moment, other than to be on call for MCRT, I decided to research Leroy Jethro Gibbs. I spent an hour and a half online, digging far deeper than I'd planned to. I knew it was stalker-ish to do, but I kept myself to public web sites only. What I found was his work records from the Marines and NCIS were impressive: lots of commendations. But his personal life was incredibly sad, with three divorces and the tragic loss of his first wife and daughter. I closed my browser after reading the obituaries of Shannon and Kelly Gibbs. I wondered if his team even knew?
"Decided to tidy up a bit, eh, McGee?" DiNozzo's voice came from behind me. I really needed to mount a mirror so I could see my door.
"Squared away, yes, sir," I replied evenly. "Where's Gibbs?" I asked. My heart ached for him even more now. Maybe he was just pushing me away because he hadn't been able to make a relationship work since being widowed…
"He and Kate are going out to the Philadelphia," he informed me. My heart sank. I was stuck here with the agent who thought I was twelve. Great. At least it was nearly the end of the day. I could escape soon back to my apartment and see if the smell of Gibbs still lingered on my pillow. I could try to figure out a way to make him see that there was a chance for something between us… I sighed.
Gibbs
Talking to the Captain of the sub was typical of dealing with a peace-time officer caught up in his wargames. Trying to convince him that his men were in danger with as little evidence as we had was tough, but not anything I hadn't dealt with before.
We interviewed the new crewmen who met the general description of our dead man, but came up empty. I was more and more relieved that it was Kate I'd brought on board. Not only was she the best person for the job, she didn't yammer like Tony. She stayed focused on the case, and it helped me to do so as well. When we reported our lack of progress, the skipper tried to throw us off the boat, but he was just posturing. I wasn't going to let him endanger the lives of his crew by sending us away. I just had to figure out how to tell the imposter from the honest crewmembers. How?
McGee
I almost groaned when I found Tony in my office the next morning. I'd slept better than I'd thought I would with how disturbed I was. At least I had after I'd beaten off twice thinking about what Gibbs and I had done the night before. I'd run scenarios through my head about how to convince Gibbs that I was relationship material, but none of them were playing out right. I'd finally concluded that Gibbs wanted someone with more experience, so I'd better get some, fast. But now here was the annoying agent DiNozzo, taking my chair, playing with the office supplies in my desk, yammering like he actually thought I should be listening.
When he got a call that their D.C. people were faxing us a picture of our dead man, I was immensely relieved to have his attention anywhere but on me and my stuff. He put the call on speaker, and I was again struck by the husky sound of their forensic specialist's voice. It was really pretty cute. She spoke flirtatiously to me, but DiNozzo cut the call off before I could respond. Shotgun effect. Well, why not?
"What's she look like?" I asked.
"Who?"
"Abby. She sounds cute."
"Not your type," he replied absently. I bristled. I bet he never would have thought my type was gruff and handsome and more than twice my age, either.
"How do you know that?"
"Have you ever felt the slightest urge to tattoo your buttocks, McGee?"
That wasn't what I expected. "I don't...think so."
"Then we need never speak of her again."
For him, that was the end of that subject. He sent me to circulate the photo and I winced as I obeyed, thinking of him rifling my desk further while I was gone.
Gibbs
Kate and I re-hashed what we knew over and over, and realized that all our assumptions were based on the crewman's personnel records being correct. I had to get Tony to double check the source.
Brow-beating the Captain of the boat again, this time forcing him to break off from his wargame to take the sub up enough for me to call NCIS, was not winning me any popularity contests, but I did what I had to and finally reached DiNozzo. I knew he'd let me know what he found, so I went back to work and we re-hashed what we knew yet again.
McGee
I'm ashamed to admit that I took a fair amount of satisfaction when Gibbs called and gave DiNozzo a bit of a smack down. And I was honestly relieved that we had an assignment, and we headed for the personnel office. Hanging around waiting with him was very unpleasant.
The pretty lieutenant who came to help us seemed rather interested in DiNozzo, and I watched as he used that and his cheesy smile to charm her. I diligently took notes and recognized a gap in his questioning.
"Sir? Uh, may I ask the Lieutenant a question?"
"McGee, you don't need my permission to ask a question...as long as you're not asking her on a date..." He was obviously distracted as he watched her and barely acknowledged me.
"No, sir, not my type," I answered, keeping the snarky tone I wanted to use only in my mind and not my voice. It was true, though. Anyone who wasn't smart enough to see through DiNozzo's smarmy, used-car salesman approach wouldn't be of any interest to me.
When he introduced me with my question to her like he was a parent encouraging his kindergartner, I did my best to ignore it.
"Ah, I was just wondering if anyone had quit in the last few days...?"
And DiNozzo's demeanor changed completely when I was right. We had a lead on an accomplice.
Gibbs
The only suspect who had made my gut twitch was the one who had lied about a whole year of his life, so I got Kate to distract the COB and went to question him again. When she complained about me 'shoving water down her throat', I immediately flashed on blowing Tim and had to shake myself to get back on track.
The whole ruse of making Kate drink a bunch of water so she'd have to get the COB to show her how to use the toilet was for naught. Not only did the petty officer I'd suspected give me an answer which rang true (he'd spent the missing year in juvenile detention); I was caught and dressed down by our liaison to the Captain. Tony, Abby, or Ducky had better come up with something, because my gut was telling me we were running out of time.
McGee
I couldn't believe the maverick way DiNozzo gained us access to the suspect's house with pretending (badly) to play football and throwing a rock through a window, but when we discovered the secret room behind his bookcase, I was glad he had. It appeared obvious that he was part of the eco-terror plan from his screen saver depicting a whale smashing a military submarine.
As I quickly pulled information off the suspect's hard drive, it felt good to show off to DiNozzo with my computer skills and my technical knowledge of chemistry, but I sobered quickly when I realized that not only was an entire crew of a U.S. Navy submarine in danger, so was Gibbs.
"Sarin gas. He's planning on introducing it into a submarine's air conditioning system... Doesn't say how."
DiNozzo spotted a prototype of a canister which was likely the intended delivery system, and I was glad to hand off the reins to him as he called it in. Then I just started praying.
Gibbs
The sub tilted severely, and somehow I knew it was DiNozzo's fault that I was plastered against a bulkhead with Kate pressed against my chest. An emergency blow on a submarine was quite the experience, and Kate's reaction when we leveled out, "Wow," was pretty succinct.
I smirked. "Yeah, that's what they all tell me," I replied, my typical response, and she smacked me for it. But I was hearing a breathless, twenty-one year old Tim McGee saying it.
"Wow. If straight men knew anal sex could be that good, we'd get the population problem under control real fast," he'd said. And he'd made me laugh, which was so rare in those days.
Damnit.
We found out who our imposter was when we reached the bridge via an emergency message from DiNozzo, and that he knew he'd been discovered. We found him dead on his bunk where he'd killed himself, but we still didn't know if he'd planted the gas somewhere aboard. The skipper had the sub hurrying back toward Norfolk, and Kate and I sent back to the ward room.
McGee
DiNozzo took off back to Washington and left me with all the paperwork from the house he'd broken into. It took all my writing skills to spin our entry into something which sounded vaguely legitimate, but at least he wasn't looking over my shoulder anymore. My first experience in the field and all I could think about was Gibbs, four years ago, picking me up on the side of the road and giving me the best time in my life...
Climbing into the older man's bed in that motel room was like ascending to heaven.
"You ever been blown by another guy?" He asked, his voice so quiet I leaned closer to hear him.
"Uh, one of my dad's officers when I was fifteen..."
He chuckled. "Well, I'm better than any officer," he boasted. Then he shifted closer on the pillow we were sharing and he kissed me. He rolled me back, leaning over me, and kissed his way down my neck. He stripped my t-shirt off and continued further down, stopping to lick and suck my nipples. I wasn't in a cheap motel anymore; I was flying, and he was guiding me.
When he got my boxers off and wrapped his mouth around my dick, I took off for orbit. He was right: this was better than anything anyone had ever done to me, and I suddenly knew that I wanted to return the favor, to taste him and feel his hardness inside me. I wanted to do everything with him.
He hummed and stuck his finger up my butt and stroked inside me and waves of pleasure swamped me. I came so hard I felt like the head of my cock was my entire existence...
I needed to see him again, and I had an idea working through the back of my mind that I wanted to share with him. I ran through my contacts, trying to sound bored and official, and I found out when the Philadelphia and the NCIS agents would be getting back to Norfolk. They'd need a ride back from the docks to their motel, and since I was working the case with them, it was only logical that I would be waiting for them...right?
Gibbs
"How can you drink coffee when it's a hundred degrees?" Kate asked as I paced the room. The Captain had kept the air conditioning turned off as a precaution against the canister being activated by the cold. Something wasn't right, and I was turning it over and over trying to figure out what the problem was.
"It helps me think," I replied absently.
"What's bugging you?" She pursued.
"Travis not releasing the Sarin."
"He never had the chance. He was quarantined or on duty until the air conditioning system was shut down."
"What was his backup plan?" I paused, but she didn't say anything even as she began to look thoughtful. "He woulda had one."
"What makes you so sure?"
"This whack-job knew he was gonna die as soon as he released the gas. Why commit suicide before he could do it?"
I could tell Kate was playing devil's advocate even as her own suspicions were raised by my questions.
"He knew we were onto him? Like you said, he was a whack-o - "
A knock interrupted her. It was a steward from the galley delivering ice cream they'd had to remove from the freezer to make room for the corpse. He listed the flavors, and Kate seemed to have not thought through why we were getting the treat. I sat down and grabbed the cookies and cream bowl. I dug in after explaining to Kate about them making room in the freezer. I almost laughed at her squeamish reaction; she was a hardened federal agent, but was disturbed by the practicality of dealing with preserving evidence?
The sweet creaminess of the dessert took me back. I hadn't had this flavor since... Shit. Since I was with Tim four years ago. Between rounds of sex, he'd gone out to the convenience store for supplies, and returned with a pint of cookies and cream.
"What do you plan to do with that?" I asked. He blushed.
"I, um, I thought we could... Well, eat some, and I had an idea... Can I surprise you?" He stammered. I chuckled and agreed. We shared the spoon and ate half the carton, then he got creative. He blew me, switching between a cold mouthful of ice cream and a sip of warm water. Shit! The combination made me shake, and when I came, thrusting hard into his perfect mouth, he swallowed it down with as much relish as he'd dug into the ice cream to begin with. Then he looked up at me with bright eyes and a hopeful expression. All he wanted was to please me, and man, did he ever.
' -SOP on a sub," the steward finished explaining to Kate. I ate one more bite as I felt an idea rising like a bubble to the surface of my mind.
"What?" Kate asked, noticing my expression.
The bubble burst, and I knew the saboteur's backup plan. "Anyone who's served on a sub knows that!" I said, and we hustled out. The canister for the gas had been a cold-activated one, and the man knew that his body would get cold when stored in the freezer. "Travis didn't commit suicide to give up- suicide was his backup plan!" The COB was still guarding the passage outside and I barked, "Where's the freezer COB?"
We pulled the body and found the corpse bloated with the deadly gas. My brain kicked into high speed and I knew the only way to get it off the boat before it burst and killed the entire crew was through a torpedo tube. We muscled the body in its bag through the ship, and I prayed the jostling wouldn't cause his skin to rupture and release the poison. Ironically, the young petty officer who'd been my chief suspect until I re-interviewed him was the torpedo tech who got to flush away our threat.
The high I felt as the case was solved made me cocky. "COB, I don't have to tell you what the most important thing is now, do I?"
"Get the ice cream back in the freezer," he replied. I swaggered ahead.
"Exactly."
~~~NCIS~~~
A/N One, maybe two chapters left. I'm considering making this a series of stories, each based around one episode in which I keep to the canon of the show but gave some off-camera action when I think Gibbs and Tim might have been hooking up. I like to think of them being there for each other when either of them need it; an unconventional and ongoing relationship. Any thoughts? Suggestions for episodes? I think I'd go in order, so early stuff would be what I'd look at next. Sorry, Genealady, if I do the series, I'm going to keep using this style with the switching first person POV; I'm having fun with it, and everyone else who has reviewed so far has been at least okay with it.